Topic: 2024-Indigenous Languages
Country: Albania
Delegate Name: Jada Wynn
Indigenous languages are the soul of a culture besides art, music, and religion. It is a type of oral communication that indigenous people have used for centuries and has a lot of history behind it. If these languages go extinct, a piece of history from cultures will be lost to time. That is the main issue: preventing more languages from going extinct. Many indigenous languages or minority languages have unfortunately been lost to time, so many stories through oral tongue, music, and more have also gone with it because of the lack of documentation. As more minority languages suffer from extinction, many countries now focus on the preservation of these indigenous languages to preserve not just only their language but also their culture and history.
Albania holds a variety of languages, which deserve to be protected and preserved so that no more history about these languages and the people who speak them will be erased forever. Albania’s main dialect, Albanian, is not at big risk of extinction, but many minority languages in Albania, such as Aromanian (Vlach) and Romanian, are slowly disappearing. Aromanian is an Eastern-Romance language spoken by Aromanians native to the Southern Balkans, according to the European Journal of Language and Culture Studies. Around 200,000 people seem to speak the language, and therefore, it is increasingly endangered. While yes, Albanian is the official language of the country,
As of present, Albania hasn’t made a major impact on tackling this issue. However, the government did make some efforts. According to the Minority Rights Group, Albania has approved and implemented Law 96/2017 on Protection of National Minorities, which acknowledges national minorities like Aromanians, Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Egyptians, Greeks, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Roma, and Serbs and eliminates previous differences between national and linguistic minorities. Acknowledging these minorities is a good first step in the preservation of languages in Albania. Instead of trying to erase indigenous people’s individual culture, it actually brings more light to it. Bringing more light to these minorities is good because it reminds people of the existence of indigenous people’s culture, language, way of life, etc. Albania’s actions show the people that the government does acknowledge these people and their culture and advocates for protecting said culture.
In this committee, the delegation is open to hearing more ways to preserve indigenous languages. While acknowledgment is a good start, educating younger generations may be a good step. The country of Albania advocates for the education of the public on certain topics that need to be addressed, and the preservation of languages is one of them. While education is good, it can only do so much, and if the main goal is to preserve endangered languages, there needs to be documentation, and recordings of these languages. Documentation and recordings of languages is one of the main contributors when preserving endangered languages and is beneficial to mention these tactics when writing a resolution. Enforcing laws to prohibit the assimilation of languages is also another effective tactic. According to a document by the Republic of Albania’s parliament when discussing Law 96/2017, in article 12 it mentions the assimilation of someone who is in national minority is prohibited. The delegation of Albania strongly suggests taking inspiration from article 12 of Law 96/2017 and implement more laws enforcing the preservation of endangered languages, and prohibit the assimilation of these said languages. Ultimately, the delegation of Albania hopes to ally with other delegations with similar ideals to make a resolution that every country and it’s respective citizens can benefit from.
Works Cited
Britannica. “Albanian Language.” Britannica, Oct 25, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Albanian-language.
Minority Rights Group. “Albania.” Minority Rights Group, March 2024, https://minorityrights.org/country/albania/.
European Journal of Language and Culture Studies. “Aromanian Vlach and Greek: Shifting Identities.” European Journal of Language and Culture Studies, Mar 30, 2024, https://www.ej-lang.org/index.php/ejlang/article/view/54.
Republic of Albania Parliament. “On the protection of national minorities in the Republic of Albania.” Republic of Albania Parliament, Oct 13, 2017, https://rm.coe.int/law-on-protection-of-national-minorities-in-albania-english/1680a0c256.
